Character Traits (4e Variant Rule)

Nobody's perfect; everybody has limitations, imperfections, problems, phobias, or deficiencies that can hamper them. That's all part of being sentient. Character traits are a way of representing a character's weaknesses without having a major impact on the game, in order to add depth and aid the player in roleplaying the character.

Flaws work like character backgrounds in reverse, applying a small penalty such as a penalty to a single skill. In addition, they provide a small bonus in another area to offset a penalty; so, for example, if a flaw imposes a -2 penalty to bluffchecks, it might apply a +1 bonus to diplomacy checks.

A character can select only a single character trait at character creation, in the same way as a character background (though the trait is in addition to the character's background bonus). A character cannot, however retrain a trait once it is selected—its there for life!

As with a feat, a character must fulfil the prerequisites for the flaw in order to select it, so a character cannot select the poor liar trait if they are trained in the bluff skill.